In house counsel @ hospital Forum

[chicintelligence]

Anyone have any information? How hard to get position, if Health-Law concentration is needed, salary, hours, etc?

[jhett]

I did an externship at a hospital's general counsel's office for one semester.

Almost all of the attorneys that worked there used to work at private law firms and moved to get a better work/life balance. It's fairly hard to get a position. They are looking for people with substantive experience in particular areas (they don't take fresh graduates because they don't have time to train - you need to hit the ground running). Each attorney had one particular specialty and all work of that type was directed to them (e.g. labor/employment, corporate/tax, regulatory compliance, medical malpractice). You only need to know health care law if you will be working on regulatory compliance (e.g. HIPAA, EMTALA) or med-mal issues.

Hours were great. The attorneys were in between 9-10 am and most left by 5:30 pm. Sometimes they left in the middle of the day for personal errands. The atmosphere was very relaxed - no tight deadlines absent emergencies, no face time, no tracking your hours. I do not have specific information on pay, but it's definitely much less than at a law firm (I would guess roughly $60-80k).

I had a lot of fun and learned a lot while I was there. Even though I'm an IP person and didn't take health law, it wasn't hard to get up to speed on everything.

[LjakW]

First to post a picture of Ted.
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[UWO-BADGPA]

I know a girl who took nursing in UG, and worked as a nurse for 2 years, then went to law school..... worked big law and left after 2 years to be in house counsel at the college of nurses of Ontario (governing body of 140, 000 registered nurses in my home province.) Makes $150,000 plus and works 9 to 5.

[ladyarglwydds]

First to post a picture of Ted.
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Dang it! thats the first thing i thought of.

[jfb]

I am also interested in this, anyone else have any more information? Specifically whether a health law background would be advantageous for this kind of work

[Joeshan520]

I'm currently doing an internship with a legal affairs department at a hospital. Being a staff attorney for a hospital corporation is definitely steady work (9-5) mostly dealing with patient complaints and reviewing case files and consent forms on top of some minor corporate functions. My advice is you must have a somewhat patient personality to do this job well. People will at times bombard the office with ridiculous claims and demands and vindicate you as an attorney for your affiliation with the corporation. The pace of your work day really depends on the efficiency of the hospital I guess is the best way to put it. The more patient complaints and law suits, the more paperwork and irritable people you have to deal with. After this internship, I will most likely still pursue law school but definitely not in this field (most likely malpractice litigation instead). Oh and you almost never go to try cases in court if that was on your list of interests. A background in health law I don't believe is absolutely necessary, but being informed regarding changes in health care policy and procedures sure wouldn't hurt you.